J232 – 8/6/2006

Another morning with sunken eyes and a face looking like someone who was out on a binge the night before.  Serge wakes up and yawns.  He rubs his face and raises his eyes to the sky while he slowly unfolds his body.  The legs have trouble straightening out.  When you witness the morning start up you can’t for one minutes believe that this barely awake, stiff man is going to tackle an almost 12-hour day on the road.

A stiff warm up too, with, as a starter, a 6.5 kilometer climb to go over a 635 meter pass.  At the first feeding, Serge yawns and splashes water on his face, not to cool off but to wake up, to give himself energy.  The first kilometers are always agony, the body warms up as the temperature increases.

Coming around a bend, in this heavenly scene, between rivers and pine-covered mountains, 3 monkeys came out on the road, only to take refuge in the trees on the other side.  A mother was holding her baby on her stomach and this scene is always a reward.  The wonder of seeing such a thing is magic.

Descending to the plain, and going through Yoro, a brief stop was made at the Mizuno factory which specializes in baseball equipment.  With golf, baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan.  

There is water everywhere: lakes, rivers, waterfalls, fountains in Japanese gardens, fish ponds, aquariums.  But you will say it’s normal because we are on an island.

Serge went on his way.  For the past two days he has been using his famous ‘Cyrano’ method, which he hadn’t used since Xian, June 21.  He couldn’t say why he had abandoned this rhythm for so long but this evening the findings were obvious, things are better.  Ludovic cut inner soles to raise both heels, which will ease the Achilles tendon.  The most important thing is that Serge’s morale is still good.